Page 111 of The Stone Initiation
She said she would.
She promised.
* * *
The blood and the screams…
The horror.
No.
I can’t.
I rock back and forth in the dark safety of Cameron’s closet. She’s gone but her clothes are still here. Her scent is still here. A happy smell. The smell of sunshine and flowers.
My insides feel hollow as if the terror Tiny evoked has sucked something out of me. As if the screams of horror have hollowed me out.
I close my eyes and imagine Cameron’s face. Her smile and her kind eyes. I imagine her hugs and the warmth that emanates from her beautiful heart.
Love.
Cameron is love, and shewillcome back for me.
I know it because we’re bound. We belong together. I’m not sure why or how, but I know I’m hers and she is mine.
I’ll just wait…wait as long as it takes for her to need me again so I can serve my purpose and fulfil my true nature.
To protect her.
CHAPTER48
CAMERON
Thursday passed in a blur of classes, training, and a late-night gym session which Curi showed up for.
He worked out in silence and left when I did, trailing me back to dorm like a protective stalker. He was watching out for me, which was a far cry from his attitude of a week ago, but I wasn’t about to challenge him about it.
It was nice having the company. I could have asked Touron or Sharniza to come with me, but the gym was my space, my time to zone out and withdraw into myself, and having either of them there would be a distraction because I’d feel the need to interact with them. I didn’t have the same obligatory feelings toward Curi, and he was pretty good at blending into the background so that I mostly forgot he was even there.
I woke on Friday feeling achy and hot, as if I had a fever coming on. But I didn’t get sick, despite what Sharniza had told Yarrow and Farnell when I’d missed classes earlier this week. The feeling passed after I showered, and the coffee Melanie left for me, hot this time, helped shake off the last of the icky feeling.
I owed her some answers. Some help. I’d missed arcana this week, but I’d find Yarrow and speak to him after history.
There was a knock at my door. “Cam, you up?” Touron called.
“Yeah.” I pulled the door open and did a double take.
Touron’s sandy hair was brushed back off his face, accentuating his high cheekbones and strong straight nose. He’d forgone his regular T-shirt for a dress shirt, open at the neck, sleeves rolled up, and he was wearing slacks not joggers, and shoes…real shoes. Touron, messy-haired, grinning, mischievous Touron had somehow turned into a slick, mysterious, brooding gargoyle male.
He looked… “Wow.” A grin split my lips.
His throat bobbed. “Good? I look good?”
“You look amazing, but isn’t it a little much for class?”
“There are no classes today, Cam. It’s the omega moon remember?”
“That’s today?” No wonder Selas had said our next training session would be on Monday.
